Posts tagged ‘small moments’
149. Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
Retell: The subtitle says it all: “Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka.”
Topics: boys, brothers, growing up, catholic school, rough-housing, adventure, reading, family
Units of Study: Memoir, Personal Narrative, Nonfiction
Tribes: Mutual Respect, Appreciations/No Put-Downs
Habits of Mind: Finding Humor
Reading Skills: Understanding figurative language and humor
Writing Skills: Balancing dialogue with description and inner thinking, including prologues
Thoughts: This is a must-read for any teacher who plans on doing a Personal Narrative or Memoir unit. Most stories are short (1-3 pages), hilarious and at times disgusting. I personally love the story entitled, “Car Trip,” a story about brothers in the back of a car reacting to a cat puking. Many of the stories end with a reflection making them ideal mentor texts if you’re teaching Memoir. One story, “Random Reading” may be useful during a Nonfiction unit. In this story he talks about enjoying the diagrams found within the pages of the Golden Book Encyclopedia series. Jon Scieszka writes particularly with boy readers and writers in mind. If you haven’t already, check out his website called Guys Read.
138. Jose! Born to Dance by Susanna Reich
Retell: This is the story of Jose Limon, who left his family to move to New York. Frustrated by his poor artistic talent he fell in love with dance and worked to become a famous dancer and choreographer.
Topics: dance, war, family, Mexico, immigration, art, music, English, Spanish, death, New York, California
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, appreciations/no put-downs, mutual respect
Habits of Mind: persisting
Reading Skills: synthesis, monitoring for sense, envisionment
Writing Skills: using sound effects, zooming in on a small moment
My Thoughts: This text has multiple teaching purposes. It’s a great text for introducing or reinforcing the habit of mind–persistence. There are many moments in the story when Jose persists. He struggles to learn English but persists despite his cruel classmates. He is determined to become a dancer and shows persistence each day during rehearsal despite sore, aching muscles. During the read aloud we can hope that students understand that successful people, no matter what their focus, work hard and persist, even when they face adversity.
84. Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
Retell: Easter is around the corner and Miss Eula wants a new hat to wear to church. Her grandchildren and her young neighbor decide to ask Mr. Kodinski if they could work at his hat shop to earn extra money. On the way to his shop, he mistakes the children for vandals. They come up with an interesting way to earn back his trust as well as earn enough money for a new hat.
Topics: reputation, hats, chutzpah, Easter, vandalism, gifts, Holocaust survivors
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir, Social Issues, Talking and Writing About Texts
Tribes: mutual respect, personal best
Habits of Mind: thinking flexibly, creating-imagining-innovating, persisting
Reading Skills: questioning, inference
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, repeating powerful lines
My Thoughts: If you follow this blog daily, you’re sick of seeing entries about Patricia Polacco. I can’t help it. I love her work. Since I’m currently in the Personal Narrative mindset, her work naturally comes to mind. The illustrations in this book can be powerful teaching tools. Throughout Chicken Sunday, real photographs appear in the background. This shows that Polacco thinks about significant people in her life and then writes stories about them. I love how Mr. Kodinski’s story can be inferred through the illustrations. Previously, Miss Eula alluded to the fact that he wanted a peaceful life after suffering so much. The text never states specifically why he had a difficult life. The illustrations give you the information. Tattooed on Mr. Kodinski’s arm are six blue numbers, revealing that he survived the concentration camps. This book shows students how readers can reread a text and peal a different layer of meaning with each reading.
82. Flying Over Brooklyn by Myron Uhlberg
Retell: On a snowy, winter’s evening a boy dreams of flying over Brooklyn. He visits many of his favorite places: Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Bridge and of course, Coney Island.
Topics: Brooklyn, birds-eye view, dreams, flying, imagination, winter
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir
Habits of Mind: responding with wonderment and awe
Reading skills: envisionment, making connections
Writing Skills: using sensory details, using observation to generate entries, zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: This book is beautifully written. I think it will be an excellent book to use as a mentor text for using descriptive language. When I read this aloud, I plan on pointing out how the author makes you feel the snow and sense the quiet throughout the snowy city. 4th grade teachers in New York may want to read this during a Geography unit. After reading the book aloud, students could find each place on a map or make their own map based on places visited throughout the text.
60. In My Momma’s Kitchen by Jerdine Nolen
Retell: This is a heartwarming collection of small moments that all take place in a family’s kitchen: a daughter receives a music scholarship, children make up stories, women chitchat and a father makes his signature dish.
Topics: family, community, childhood
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir
Tribes: mutual respect
Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, envisionment, interpretation
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: This is a great text to read at different points of the year. I originally purchased this book thinking it would be a good read aloud for the Personal Narrative unit. After reading it a second time, I realize that it’s also a great mentor text for the Memoir unit. Each story is connected by its setting–the kitchen. Using this text students could try out Nolen’s strategy of thinking of an important place (a room, a park) and write memories associated with that place. Since this book reads like an anthology of notebook entries, you could use this text when introducing the writer’s notebook.
50. Home: A Collaboration of Thirty Distinguished Authors and Illustrators of Children’s Books to Aid the Homeless
Retell: An anthology of poetry and prose all based on the subject ‘home’. Many famous writers and illustrators contributed pieces such as: Virginia Hamilton, Aliki, Jon Sciszka, Jane Yolen and more.
Topics: home, hiding places, family, children
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir, Launching the Reading Workshop
Habits of Mind: thinking flexibly, creating-imagining-innovating
Reading Skills: making connections, envisionment, monitoring for sense
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, using sensory details
My Thoughts: This is a handy resource for the Personal Narrative unit. Many of the poems and stories within the anthology will be great ‘small moment’ mentor texts. Home contains some great pieces that will encourage students as they author their independent reading lives. The story “Comfortable Old Chair” by Karla Kuskin features a girl who loves reading in her favorite chair. In the poem, “Elevator” Lucille Clifton describes a girl who reads in the corner of her building’s elevator. I plan on using these pieces to show how dedicated readers take charge of their lives at home and find a place that’s entirely theirs. I knew a student who used to have trouble finding a quiet space to read in his crowded apartment. He started scheduling bathroom reading time. He would bring in pillows, blankets and books and make a comfy reading spot in the bathtub.
49. Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin by Susan Goldman Rubin
Retell: Learn about the amazing life of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who taught art to children in the Terezin Camp during the Holocaust. The book includes several photos, drawings, paintings and writings from her students, many of whom did not survive.
Topics: art, holocaust, ghetto, Terezin, Nazis, school, poetry, drama, resiliency
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Nonfiction, Content Area Reading and Writing, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect
Habits of Mind: persisting, thinking flexibly, creating-imagining-innovating, thinking interdependently, remaining open to continuous learning
Reading Skills: envisionment, determining importance, interpretation, inference
Writing Skills: launching writers notebook, zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: One can learn many lessons from this book. I am impressed by Dicker-Brandeis’ devotion to learning. When she discovered that she would be sent to Terezin she chose not to bring items for herself, but art supplies for the children she knew would be in the camp. Through art her students were able to both escape and record the horrors around them. Though I don’t plan on teaching a unit about the Holocaust this year, I may choose to read a portion of this book when emphasizing how writers notebooks can be powerful places to record our memories, our thoughts and our struggles. It is important for our students to realize that their experiences, just like those recorded at Terezin, are important and should be recorded.
41. Shanghai Messenger by Andrea Cheng
Retell: Xiao Mei is invited by her uncle to visit China. At first she is reluctant to travel by herself and once she arrives she finds the new setting lonely and disorienting. She eventually adjusts and begins to appreciate her extended Chinese family.
Topics: Chinese, China, poetry, family, mixed-race, language barrier, traveling, homesickness
Units of Study: Character, Personal Narrative, Social Issues
Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs
Reading Skills: interpretation, inference, envisionment, making connections
Writing Skills: incoporating foreign languages, zooming in on small moments, including sensory details
My Thoughts: I love how this story is told as a series of free verse poems. I plan on reading this book aloud when I teach how writers zoom in on small moments. Each poem is a small moment from her trip. It can be a good mentor text for writers who want to write about a vacation and are tempted to write about the entire vacation. Cheng incorporates Chinese vocabulary throughout the story. She even includes a Chinese glossary with a pronunciation guide which will aid readers when they attempt to read it aloud. It’s also a good book to read when studying character change. In the beginning, Xiao Mei is afraid to go to China by herself and thinks she will never adjust to life in China. By the end she develops into a grown-up girl who is both completely American and completely Chinese.
29. Saying Goodbye to Lulu by Corinne Demas
Retell: A young girl has difficulty saying goodbye to her beloved dog Lulu. With help from her parents, she learns how to move on without forgetting the wonderful memories of Lulu.
Topics: loss, dogs, reflection, death, dying, pets, grief, memories, family
Units of Study: Personal Narrative
Reading Skills: synthesis, making connections
Writing Skills: creating flashbacks, zooming in on small moments, using sensory details
My Thoughts: I shouldn’t have read this book in a cafe. Let’s just say that my eyes were quite red and puffy after reading this book. It is however, a great text for discussing various stages of the grieving process. She goes through denial, anger, sadness, reflection and finally acceptance. The author zooms in on small but important details (“I missed the sound of her tail going thump, thump while she waited for me at the bottom of the stairs…”) making it a great mentor text for writing narratives.
23. Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest
Retell: Hundred-year-old George Baker and his young neighbor Harry are friends. Each day they wait for the school bus that brings them both to school.
Topics: friendship, reading, literacy, growing old, learning, music, small moments, friendship
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect
Reading Skills: envisionment, inference, interpretation
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, alliteration, onomatopoeia, using sensory details
My Thoughts: This is a slow-paced story that easily lends itself to teaching small moments. Though you could also read this book aloud with a social issues lens, the author spends most of the story describing the moments just before going to school. It would be a good mentor text for paying attention to how authors incorporate sound into their writing.
Teachable Texts 